Hadassah stretches to meet costs of new tower by 2012 deadline

Hadassah stretches to me

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
The Madoff affair and its reverberations on donors to Jewish and Israeli causes has led to the raising so far of only about $200 million of the $300 million cost of the hospitalization tower under construction on the Hadassah University Medical Center campus in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem. The 19-story, 100,000-square-meter complex - which will replace all the hospital's nearly 50-year-old inpatient facilities - is scheduled to open in March 2012 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America. Some relief has been provided by the David and Fela Shapell Family Foundation, which has declined to announce exactly how much it is contributing to finance the main entrance, atrium and other needs of the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Inpatient Tower. However, The Jerusalem Post learned that it is between $10 million and $20 million. It will memorialize the parents of David and Fela Shapell - well-known donors to Darche Noam educational institutions and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem - who were murdered in the Holocaust. The Shapells live in California, where they run a home-building business. Hadassah Medical Organization director-general Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef is currently abroad to get additional donations for the tower, not an easy task in a troubled US economy, where Madoff 's Ponzi scheme caused many Jews to lose huge sums. The hospitalization tower will have 20 surgical theaters and a vast array of medically advanced and environmentally friendly features, says Mor-Yosef.